Report: Four new bowl games on tap for 2014

The American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences have formed an alliance to participate in four new bowls that will debut in 2014, ESPN reported on Monday.

The games will take place in Boca Raton, Fla., Miami and the Bahamas and only involve schools from those leagues.

In August, the MAC and Sun Belt announced the creation of the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., in 2014. That means there will be four additional games for a total of 39 bowls, including the College Football Playoff title game.

The Miami Bowl, created by the American Athletic Conference, is expected to be held at Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins. The American Athletic will be the “anchor” conference, and its opponent would come from the other four non-power leagues, a source said.

In August, ESPN reported that the Bahamas Bowl will be held at Thomas Robinson Stadium and would be the first postseason bowl played outside the United States since the International Bowl in Toronto (2007-10).

A news conference will be held Oct. 14 to officially announce the Bahamas Bowl. All five non-power leagues will rotate in the game.

The source told ESPN that the new bowls are a result of existing bowls not entertaining opportunities for the five non-power conferences.

That makes 39 bowls in all now. Too much? Not in my book. I want to see more college football being played, not less.

Yes, it’s too much. Does every 6-6 non-BCS team deserve a bowl berth? Bowls use to be a lot more significant than they are now.

tigersfandan says:Oct 7, 2013 10:14 PM

Er, “used to be…”

Poor speaking causes poor spelling. Facepalm.

atxcane says:Oct 7, 2013 10:24 PM

Tough position. I understand why they created their own bowls (they wanted a $$$ generator as well), but part of me thinks the separate bowl grouping is cementing themselves as “second tier” conferences and further distancing themselves from the big money BCS games.

How will they fill them? Are they going to let teams with losing records go? There will be 78 bowl slots with 122 FBS teams. It seems likely that unless the weaker leagues schedule a lot of FCS teams there will be years with not enough qualifying teams.

11thstreetmafia says:Oct 8, 2013 3:20 AM

6-6 teams in bowls are fine. The problem is when a6-6 team plays against a9-3 team.

myopinionisrighterthanyours says:Oct 8, 2013 9:41 AM

Ah, why not just have 61 bowl games or whatever we need to be sure everybody plays in one, and make sure everybody gets a trophy. They already can’t fill the bowls they have, and now we’re adding 4 more? Okay.

Sparky, the problem with scheduling FCS teams is that the FCS teams can beat the lower-level FBS teams, which doesn’t help. Your math is a little off, but not by enough to make much difference – there will be 76 slots (championship game slots come out of the semifinals), and by the time the transitioning teams are done, there will be something close to 128 FBS teams.

You are going to see more 6-6 teams in the postseason. You might get to see a 6-6 team make a bowl game with a FCS win and five others against teams with losing records, with a 5-7 Power Conference team with five wins against bowl-eligible Power Conference teams stay home.

Not a single bowl game in the North! WTF?
Southern teams have a distinct advantage in terms of travel, solely b/c every damn bowl game is essentially a home game. meanwhile EVERY northern team is FORCED to travel long distances (as are their fans) and this is a major strain in today’s economy.

Screw the south, more bowl games for the north!

jimbo75025 says:Oct 8, 2013 2:24 PM

@dryzzt23

Bowl games are marketed as part of a reason for a little vacation centered around the game. Who considers a lovely three day getaway to Boston in late December?

Face it, during the winter if people are going to travel the preferred destinations are those with warmer weather.